Disclaimer: The following characters
belong to Marvel Comics and DC comics. No profit is being solicited for this
story.

Author’s comments: The following
story is what the authors sort of expected from the Marvel vs DC crossover that
took place a couple of years ago. A lot of characters have changed since then.
This story is intended as entertainment reading of some of our favorite
characters. Please enjoy.

Though I am no longer in contact with
the original co-author of this piece, I humbly hope that were he to read my
Director’s Cut changes and additions, that he might be proud at the
improvement over a piece that we both agreed to and loved creating.

--Alex Soto (Mystic)

Conflicts and Resolutions

<Part
XIV>

Batman stood within the shadow casted by two
trees on each of his sides.Remaining
alert and aware, he began spending a moment enjoying the darkness the shadow
presented around him. The thought of being forced into a situation he did not
want to be a part of annoyed him.He
realized, however, the importance of such a powerful prize and concluded it had
to be won by Nightwing and himself.His
thoughts were not that of greed, but of paranoia. "I don't think even
Superman would try to destroy it. He'd probably find some way for it to be put
to good use. The only problem is that so long as it exists, it can still be
taken and used by the wrong people."

Before
the Batman could finish his discourse, Nightwing jumped in front of him from a
nearby tree."I saw the Joker
and Lex Luthor about a mile down. The Joker's not even attempting to stay hidden
which made him relatively easy to spot.I'd
bet we can probably ambush them and take them out of this thing in no
time."

"If it came down to it, I'm sure we could
take both Joker and Luthor," the Batman explained."Besides, they're too sloppy to get very far in this contest. I'm
more concerned about some of the larger more powerful..."

Suddenly,
Batman was interrupted as both men noticed a rustle of the leaves behind him.
They both turned around to find Conan running toward them full speed with his
battle axe ready. Conan swung in their direction. Nightwing leapt toward the
left over the swinging axe, somersaulting out of the way. Batman simply grabbed
his cape and sidestepped the attack. The axe sliced through the tree behind
Batman causing it to fall.This
bothered the Batman as he realized that the noise would certainly attract
others.

As
Nightwing kept his distance, the Batman faced off against Conan.Batman took a step back and threw his batarang toward the axe trying to
force it out of the Barbarian's hand.The
attempt was unsuccessful as the batarang was instinctively batted away by Conan.Meanwhile, Nightwing stood readily with a tranquilizer gun waiting for an
opening.

Batman realized he wouldn't be able to match
strength or agility with the giant before him.Quickly, he signaled Nightwing to stand back as he reached into his
utility belt with both hands.With
his left hand, Batman threw a handful of small round packets on the ground.As he placed a filter on his mouth with his right hand, the packets
opened up and released a knockout gas that surrounded and covered them both.

"By Crom!" Conan shouted in his own
tongue as he attempted to hold his breath.A punch to the gut by the Batman forced him to breathe in the gas
knocking him out senseless almost immediately.

A sudden thought crossed Nightwing’s mind."If he's a contestant, where's
his partner?"From behind, Nightwing was suddenly grabbed and lifted off
the ground by two hands surrounding his throat. Nightwing tried to struggle free
but the fangs of Rune suddenly dug into the neck of the former Boy Wonder and
began absorbing his life energy.

"Oh
YEEESSSSSS!" Rune said with a smile on his face as he licked his lips.I knew sending that big brute in as a diversion would leave me an opening
to defeat you humans."

Batman
and the body of Nightwing suddenly de-materialized from the battlefield.

"Yes,
the first of many have been defeated," Rune said out loud as he stood over
the unconscious body of Conan."Soon,
the inevitable will happen. The star gem of power will go to the only one who
deserves it.And that is
RUNE!"

Suddenly,
a pair of Omega beams hit Rune from behind, penetrating through his body and
shooting out through the other side. The scream of Death was heard silenced only
by a booming voice."I think
not, you vain-glorious dolt," Darkseid said as he walked toward the
scarred, torn apart body of Rune which, along with Conan's, began to disappear."You were correct in one aspect, savage.The gem WILL go to the only one who deserves it.But that description fits the Lord of Apokolips, DARKSEID!The gem will be mine."

"You
mean ours, correct, father?" Orion announced in a sarcastic tone as he
followed Darkseid from behind on his unit rider."Keep in mind, Father...forced as it may be, we are
still a team and must work together if we are to capture this prize.Even the mighty Darkseid can not succeed on this journey alone."

Darkseid
turned around to face Orion, clearly annoyed at the comment.Suddenly his facial expression changed to that of a smile."Of course, you are correct.Come,
Orion, let us continue then...as a team."

<Part
XV>

A blue
light streaked across the sky.Before
he knew it, the man of steel was hit with a kryptonite ray weakening him and
sending him hurling to the ground.Captain America, realizing what had happened, quickly rushed
to save his partner.They both fell
to the ground as Captain America was unable to hold the sheer weight and
velocity of Superman's body.The
impact knocked the air out of the Captain as he attempted to roll over to the
side and lessen the force of the impact on his body.Two villains approached.

"Ha!Ha!Ha!Hoo!Ha!I haven't had this much fun since...well, um, since 5 minutes ago.Hoo!Hoo!Hoo!"

"Much
as I hate your unanticipated buffoon antics, kindly move out of the way so I can
finish my sworn enemy," Lex Luthor commanded to the Joker pointing the end
of a modified scanner in Superman's direction.

Not
waiting for a response or reaction, Luthor fired. The Joker's quick reactions
bailed him out as he barely sidestepped the shot intended for Superman.

“Sheesh,”
the Joker turned to his partner.“Talk
about obsessive-compulsive disorder!”The
Joker smiled as Luthor chose to ignore him.

The shot
was deflected as Captain America threw his shield to Superman at an extremely
high velocity. Superman was barely able to catch it, not completely recovered
from the first aerial blast, and did not move choosing instead to block each
newly fired shot with the shield.

"My
simple radiation to light converter here will finish you off!" Luthor
yelled grabbing more kryptonite from a hidden pocket on his belt and attaching
his scanner jacks to it."I
will not be denied!"

"Well,
well, flag man. Heh! Heh!" the Joker replied approaching the Captain."Get a load of this!Ha!
Ha!" he said hysterically as he squirted gas from the flower on his lapel.The Captain realized and reacted quickly, holding his breath and
somersaulting backward out of the way attempting to get some distance from his
adversary."You remind me of a
particular DARK adversary of mine," Joker said as he threw a bola with bat
shaped ends entangling the Captain's legs. "This was to be meant for him.
Alas..." he said placing his left hand on his heart.A moment of silence was followed by a sigh."Now then," he giggled seemingly forgetting his previous
thoughts, "I believe the old man said something about eliminating a team
through...death?"He pulled his belt off.The green leather sheath pretending to be his belt fell off displaying a
double-edged wavy sword.He walked
toward the Captain slicing the air in front of him. "Time to make the
donuts..."

No more
words were heard.Instead, a loud
thunk resounded and a shield ricocheted off the back of Joker's head and
implanted itself within a tree.The
Joker fell flat on his face as the Captain looked over and saw Lex Luthor tied
up against a tree with vines all across his body.

"Guess
I owe you there, son," the Captain said untangling his feet.

"I
believe we are even," Superman replied."Why don't we tie him up also so he doesn't give us more
trouble?"

"Sounds
good to me.No life is worth taking
for granted - no matter what the stakes!" Captain America adamantly
replied.

"I agree!" Superman quickly answered.

Together
they placed the Joker against a tree and bound him with local vines many times
over.Captain America then reached
over and pulled his shield from the tree and placed it around his back.

"There's
just one thing that's bothering me," Superman told his partner as they
began walking eastward.

"What's
that?" Cap replied looking back.

"How
do you make that shield return to you?" Superman astonished questioned.

"It's
all in your wrist, son," the Captain answered with a smile as he placed his
hand around Superman's shoulder. "You have to quickly determine the angle
your target is located.Then..."
Cap continued to explain as they passed a beautiful mile long flower garden.Both paused momentarily before continuing. Though they were more
light-hearted now, they both realized they still had a mission to accomplish.

<Part
XVI>

The air
became a bit foggy as the area opened up to a more mountainous region.Approaching this change of scenery were two individuals who had not
stopped arguing since they first encountered each other in this quest.

"Blundering
brute!Are you sure this is the
correct path?" Doom asked his already angered partner.

"Fool!My instruments are far beyond your mere analog compasses," Kang
responded in defiance."If your feet moved as quickly as your mouth we would
already be there."

"If
we hadn't stopped for you to calibrate your instruments we would be there, time
droll!" Doom responded."This
scanner is just an old prototype of mine.If
I had my regular scanner...I didn't exactly have time to..." Doom was
interrupted by an unexpected sight.

Both
villains began entering a new more cliff-like region from where the gem could be
seen at the entrance of a cave about a half a mile in front of them.

Kang was
the first to speak."My
instruments show that this is the real thing!" he said in an excited tone.
He turned around and only to be struck by an energy sapping beam disabling his
personal shield.

"Give
me your scanner," Doom said pointing his scanner at Kang.

"For
what purpose?" Kang said folding his hands.

"Because
Traveler did not give me time to bring a weapon. Naturally I had to modify my
scanner and it could no longer be used as such, for which you foolishly mistook
as primitiveness.The rest of the
way might be filled with traps and it would take too long to re-modify my
scanner!Now, since time is of the
essence..."

He did not finish his sentence as he fired his
modified scanner at Kang.Kang fell
to the ground and Doom stepped in and picked up his scanner as he quickly headed
toward the gem.He turned but did
not stop as Kang mumbled words of being the last.

"Be
lucky I needed you alive to avoid leaving this hunt ground, or your heart would
not have the energy to beat!" Doom said.He quickly turned around and hastened his pace toward the gem looking
down to the scanner the whole time."Curious.
There's another energy pattern here masked by its proximity to the gem.I wonder what it...a-a-argh!" he yelled as the scanner exploded and
sent him flying back several feet.He
quickly recognized what Kang was mumbling - "He who laughs last laughs
best".He began realizing that
Kang must have booby-trapped his scanner to key on certain preordained
sequences.Before Doom was able to
recover, a creature emerged from the cave attracted by the current explosion.The creature quickly saw and attacked Dr. Doom unable to react due to the
initial damage by the proximity of the first explosion.The creature disintegrated the armor and Doom himself.With its job complete, it headed back to the cave.Kang disappeared along with the remnants of anyone having been there.

As two
figures watched the proceedings, a bright flash occurred as the region becomes
jungle-like and the gem teleported itself to a new location.

"The
energy creature you released on the battlefield seems immensely powerful!"
Metron finally broke the silence on what they were both observing.

"More
powerful than you think.It has a
fragment of my power!It is
virtually unbeatable," Judus replied with pride.

"Then
how are any of the combatants supposed to defeat the creature in order to obtain
the gem?" Metron asked curiously.

Judus
turned his eyes on Metron."No
one is supposed to defeat it. This is an experiment and nothing more.What happens to the rats in my maze is of little importance.Now let us move on, as our job here is to observe and learn - not
sympathize."With the
deliverance of Judus’ cold words, both he and Metron disappeared to observe a
new group.

<Part
XVII>

On
another area of the planet, bushes rustled as the two Colulans walked side by
side more interested in their conversation than in their mission.

"To
defeat him, you must know whose son he is," Braniac-5 continued with their
discussion."Very interesting
riddle."

"I
must admit, I am currently at a loss to answer it," Vril Dox began to reply
until the hand-com on his future partner's belt began to hum.Braniac-5 immediately grabbed the small mini-computer, took it off his
belt and began to read data on the screen attached.

"The
gem has just teleported. Excellent!" he smiled to himself.

Vril Dox then looked over 5's shoulder attempting
to read the screen.His eyebrows
rose in amazement. "You've programmed your system to lock onto the
frequency of the gem!Your computer
is telling you exactly how far the gem is from here.How?"

"Simple
30th century Colulan technology," Braniac-5 answered."I couldn't access it, though until the gem fluctuated its energy,
which it did by teleporting itself to a new location.Though some type of energy field prevents me from materializing right
next to the gem, I can now teleport us close to the location.Stand ready."

"But
to teleport blind...there is the possibility that we might end up
re-materializing in a tree or such, correct?" Dox questioned.

Vril Dox
nodded and stood up straight as 5 pushed some buttons on his hand-com and they
both teleported away.

<Part
XVIII>

"You
believe this entire hunt has been for studying purposes?" Warlock
questioned his partner?

"Very
likely. Why else would such pairings be set up in a quest for such a great
prize?The Travelers'
generosity?" the Titan smiled looking at Warlock.

"I am hardly a scientist, however, I would
think there are better ways using independent variables to conduct such
a..."

Warlock was interrupted as Thanos clenched his
fists and turned his head from looking at Warlock, forward. His hands began to
glow as he fired plasma shots toward the bushes in front of them.Darklore and Meer’lyn rolled out each in an opposite direction in time
to avoid the blast.Thanos aimed
his hands at Darklore who was not so quick to recover.Meer’lyn quickly flied over to attack Thanos and fired tiny multi-phasic
electric blasts continually at his shoulder and chest area, attempting to
disrupt his molecular structure.Thanos
was unable to lock onto her partner as she continued firing with all her might
and flying random patterns attempting to distract the all-pervading evil one.

"Thanos!
Wait. They are..." Warlock began to say as the situation becomes more
hectic.

"It's
us or them," the Titan yelled back as he backhanded the little wasp-like
creature into unconsciousness.The
force of the impact sent her 50 feet away as she hurled out of eyesight.

Darklore
enraged began reciting a chant, "Coco
e ni yo nihayate!"Suddenly a stasis field formed around Thanos and he became frozen in his
tracks as he had just begun walking towards Darklore.

With his
head down, a saddened Warlock replied, "I am sorry about this my
friend."He lifted his staff
without looking up as a beam of green light struck Darklore and felled him to
the ground.

Thank you for reading this edition of our Director's Cut to
one of our first fan fiction stories at the Silver Surfer Website - Cosmic
Treasure Hunt!
We hope you enjoyed it... Now, be sure to send us feedback below or by e-mailing cpufeedback@yahoo.com

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